Let's take our Bibles this morning. Our reading will come out of
the Old Testament, the book of Psalms, and the number of that Psalm
is Psalm 24. I'm fudging on you because I
marked mine. Psalm 24. Now before we begin to read, I'm talking slow so y'all can
find your place. Psalm 24, simply titled, A Song of David. is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the
world and they that dwell therein. For God has founded it upon the
seas, and established it upon the floods." That seems like an awful insecure
foundation, but not when God's doing it. We might have trouble with it
and surely we would. You don't build a house on a
lake and just let it float and go wherever it wants to go. He's
founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Now here is one of, I don't know
how many places, speaks as plain as words can speak them. Verse
3, "...who shall ascend into the
hill of the Lord?" If you let me paraphrase that, I would say,
who shall ascend into heaven? Or who shall stand in His holy
place? If you and I have to do that
literally for ourselves, there ain't going to be no such thing
as heaven for us. We've well deserved hell since
the day we drew our first breath and we'll be that way when we
die. Who shall ascend? Let's find the answer right here
in this psalm, verse 4. He that has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not
lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, Now, in ourselves, we cannot
do that. But in our Savior, and His imputed
righteousness to His people, we're declared before God to
have done it, every single thing this has met in us. Verse 5, He shall receive the
blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.
Now the only way we can take this home and say, that's mine,
is for that to be done in Christ. You just can't get around Christ.
You can't do without Christ. There ain't nothing for anybody
except in Christ. Verse 5 again, at least I think
it's the second time around. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them
that seek him, that seek your face, O Jacob. What wonderful
condescension that the Lord Jesus would call Himself Jacob. That's
sorry, good for nothing fella. That guy that would cheat you
before you could even know it. And yet our Lord calls Himself,
O Jacob. Then we run into this word, Selah. To some extent it has to do with
saying Amen, but in many other respects, It has a lot more meaning
than that. It has to do with Christ. It
has to do with him as our substitute, our federal head, and our representative. If you possess a Hawker dictionary,
you can find it in there and he will say a lot more than I can possibly ever
learn. He makes it pretty clear and pretty plain. You find this
word 70 times in the book of Psalms and three times in the
prophecy of Habakkuk. All right, verse 7. Lift up your
heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting
arms, and the King of glory shall come in. Now who is this King
of glory? It is the precious, precious
Lord Jesus Christ. We have a second answer to the
question, who is this? Verse 8, I'm sorry. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. That Lord, in both cases, is
spelled with all capital letters. Whoever this is, is God. And it's God the Son. Verse 9. The gates of heaven
are commanded to just fly open for the great, glorious entrance
from having come into this world and lived 33 years and went to
the cross and was buried in a borrowed tomb and rose the third day and
ascended to glory. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Even lift them up, you everlasting
doors! and the King of Glory shall come
in." Who is this King of Glory? He's got more names than you
know. Here's a list. The Lord of Hosts. He is the
King of Glory. He's the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He's our Creator, our Maker,
our Redeemer, our Savior. Our righteousness, our all. And there's that little word,
S-E-L-A-H, Selah. Now don't dare read that without
seeing Christ in it. And I'm talking to me as well
as to you. Who is this King of Glory? We knew enough about this book,
the Bible, we could occupy considerable
time just finding out what this book has to say about Christ,
about His attributes, about His power, about His compassion,
about His being our Savior. Who is this King of Glory? Who
is He? Now let us pray. Lord, God of heaven and earth, thank you for putting in this
book such statements as these. in order for us to ponder them,
study them, confess them, and praise you for them. For they
clearly and plainly are setting forth our precious Redeemer. Lord, don't let us live in your
world Live on your food without showing us who Christ
is. What a tragedy indeed that people
leave this world every day. Oh, God's too good to send me to
hell. He sent His Son there. That ought to forever silence
that argument. Lord, we're poor, helpless sinners. We don't know how to get in out
of the rain, let alone how to answer many,
many riddles of one kind or another in our Bibles. Make this a special day in this
place. Teach us what it means to know and to have the Lord
Jesus Christ as our only hope. Help us. Help me. Bless our time together today,
dear Lord. May it be honoring to the triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We ask in our Savior's name.
Amen. Alright, we're going to leave
Psalms, and I may refer to it I don't know that I shall, but
I might. I can't ever tell you what I'm actually going to do
because I don't know. But I want you to turn to the
Gospel of Matthew. Now if there's one book in the
Bible easy to find, that's it. Matthew chapter 5. And this passage I want you to
mark so you can find it easily. We shall return to it, I think.
At least that's what my notes call for. And sometimes I just
don't follow what I've written down. Just one verse for now in Matthew
chapter 5, verse 20. Matthew 5 20, For I say unto you, that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Now these people called scribes
and Pharisees, now these were some high muckety mucks. I mean,
outwardly they were the choice of the whole world. Inwardly
they were full of dead men's bones. Our Lord called them whited
sepulchers. Another translation of that,
at least one I think that would be fitting, is painted graves. Can't you imagine that? Put this
body in a grave and paint this glorious painting? And in the case of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and some others, they have no part in what Christ
has purchased by His blood. But God saves sinners and He
saves rebels. We ought to be glad of that because
that's much of what we are. Indeed it is. Read it one more
time, verse 20. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven." You just can't get in. And if you read on either side
of this passage that we have in front of us in Matthew's Gospel,
you'll see why. They don't have a Redeemer, they
don't have a Savior. They hated Christ and pursued
Him for all they were worth. And finally, He allows them to
put Him on a tree and crucify Him. But they aren't finished
with Him yet. Alright, there's a phrase here
in verse 20 of Matthew 5. except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees." This
Bible uses the word righteous, and I cannot tell you how many
places and how many times it is set forth before us. Now here
are some questions we need to address in regard to Matthew
5.20. Who is speaking these words in
that verse? These are the words of our Messiah,
our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're His
words. His words. And to whom is He
speaking? If you look back in Matthew chapter
5, to the beginning of the chapter,
the first two verses, will define for us who it is that the Lord
Jesus is speaking to. Verse 1 and 2 in Matthew 5. And
seeing the multitudes, Christ, He, went up into a mountain,
and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. And he opened
his mouth and taught them saying." Now let's find out what he had
to say. What does the Lord Jesus tell
us in this book that we know is the Bible? What is he telling
us? His subject is holiness and righteousness. And none of us can produce this
of ourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. This righteousness is a righteousness
which makes one a child of God. It is also a righteousness with
which God is well pleased. He delights. He delights for
us to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness also makes
one accepted of God. You remember in the Old Testament
there are like seven or eight words that are hyphenated, words
that all refer to Christ, and one of them has to do with righteousness. And if I remember correctly,
it's in... Thank you, Craig. And it appears another time in
regard to the Church. Yes, in the 23rd chapter of Whose book is that? Jeremiah,
alright. And we are said to be, Christ
is said to be the Lord our righteousness. Then in chapter 33 or somewhere
there about, he adds to that and says, she is the Lord our
righteousness. Now where did he get that from?
His bride, His church, His people. He Himself is absolutely perfectly
righteous, and if we are in Him, we're in the same shape. You
can't get any better. But that ain't all, you can't
get any worse. This righteousness makes one
accepted of God and equips a person to live in eternal glory with
Christ and all the saints. Heaven is a holy place prepared
by a holy God for a holy people. So who shall stand in his presence? We just read it in Psalm 24.
He that has clean hands and a pure heart and has not lifted up his
soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully. These are the people. Yet you
know that if we counted our sins, we wouldn't
be able to do anything. We couldn't have another job
or anything. We'd stay busy. If it's not outward, it's inward.
If it's not in my heart, it's in my mind. And these things
are impossible for us to get rid of on our own. Only God can do it in Christ.
And thank God He has. He has. No person Nobody ever has this righteousness
by nature. The only fellow that started
out with it, lost it, in short order, in the Garden of Eden,
his name was Adam. When he fell, all the human race
fell in him and nobody No matter how pretty the baby looks, nobody
is without sin that's kin to Adam. Do you understand imputation? You can't have imputed righteousness
to you if you don't have the ability to understand something
about our sins being imputed to Christ. Because sinners we
are. We're born sinners. Not anybody ever, except Christ,
has this righteousness by nature. It's not by works, it's not by
the deeds of the law. In our Lord's day, some of those
people, particularly the Pharisees and the scribes, they thought
they did. They figured out some little
representation of the law and addressed that with more attention
than anything else, but it still wasn't any good. It's contaminated
with sin. Everything we do and everything
we touch We expose it to our sins and
we can't get rid of it. You can have all the hand cleaner
you want to and all the disease, whatever you call these things
on the wall at the hospitals and wherever else. It doesn't
touch sin. Not at all. Not at all. Well, if some thought they had
it, then there are gazillion more in our day that think they
do too. And I used to be a member of
that tribe, how about you? Now if you still have Matthew 5,
I have three verses for you. Verse 17, 18, and 19. You ready? Matthew 5, 17. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets, I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, till they cease to be, one jot or one tittle,
one little dotting of an I or crossing of a T, shall in no
wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. And you know what
that means? The law still demands today what
it did when Christ was here. It doesn't change. How come it doesn't change? God
can't change. He can't quit being God. Verse 19 is the last one here. Whosoever, therefore, shall break
one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
go and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven." That brings us to our text. For I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven." And if our Lord gives us a true representation
in this same gospel, as a matter of fact, since you're already
at Matthew, if you'll see if I can remember the chapter. Chapter 7, I think it is. Pretty sure it is. Absolutely sure it is. Verses
21, 22, and 23. Now here is a portrait of a host of persons who on judgment day are going
to tell Christ what all they've done in His name, how much money
they've given, how many sick people they've helped, how many
this, that, and the other. Verse 21, Matthew chapter 7,
Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. But he that does the will of
my Father which is in heaven, Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied or taught or preached in Your
name? And in Your name have cast out
devils or demons? And in Your name done many wonderful
works?" Oh, our Lord just rejoices and
throws the doors open and says, come in. Nope. That ain't it. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you." Now he knows all about them, he knows all
about us. And anybody else we want to talk about, he knows
all about us. But he doesn't know us in the case of these
persons. He doesn't know them as that
word is sometimes identified as loving them. Yes, but Jesus loves everybody.
Where did you find that? You mean He loves the devil too? Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you, depart from me, you that work iniquity. Iniquity. There's more to this than we
can possibly consider. It is indeed absolutely wonderful. I had these little notes here in case I had enough time to
deal with them. I didn't want to necessarily
bring them up without that. The Pharisees had a form of righteousness. And that form is outward righteousness. They dressed in all the right
religious garbs. They prayed in the streets, hoping
they'd draw a crowd, let people know how spiritual and how godly
they were. Now our turning time might have
to slow down a bit. Our Lord said, I'll give you
the reference as soon as I give you the statement. You are they
which justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. That which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. You can find that in Luke 16
verse 15. These Pharisees and these scribes
had a form of righteousness. There's plenty of ways in our
day that people can appear to be religious. You know, they
come to church with a Bible about this long and this wide and they
got it right here. You know, they want you to see
it. They want you to know they love this book, but they hate
God. Something's wrong with that.
Terribly wrong. Terribly wrong. They had a form
of righteousness. In Luke 18, it's the Pharisee
in the temple. He said, I'm not like other men
are. Christ called them hypocrites. He said, they say and do not. Paul's charge against Israel,
as found in Romans 10, 1-3, is that they were going about to
establish their own righteousness and refused to submit themselves
to the righteousness of God in Christ. Now, the first four verses
of Romans 10, well, let's just turn to it. It is absolutely
dynamite. It's heavy stuff. Romans chapter
10. Alright, here we go. Romans 10.1. Brethren, he's writing now to
the believers in Rome. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God. These people are zealous. But not according to knowledge. What kind of zeal is that? It's
an ignorant zeal. Deliberately ignorant. not according to knowledge."
And here's the punchline, verse 3. For they, being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted ourselves unto the righteousness
of God. It's too much. We can't take that. If we embrace that, we have to
give up all that we've done and all the wonderful things people
have said about us. Verse 4, Romans 10, For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. For whom? To everyone that believes. Every single solitary believer. Christ is the end of our search
for righteousness because He is our righteousness. And if
He ain't my righteousness, He ain't nothing to me. Let me read
you another statement. A certain prophet in the Old
Testament said, We're all as an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses
are filthy rags, and we all do fade as the leaf, and our iniquity,
like the wind, has taken us away. That comes from the prophet Isaiah
in chapter 64 of his prophecy and verse 6. were all as an unclean thing. One of the first things that
this man saw after the death of Uzziah the king, who thought
he was better than anybody else, and he demanded to offer incense,
which could only be done by the priesthood at that time. And he said, give it to me anyway,
and God smote him with leprosy. In chapter 6, of Isaiah is when
he begins to be God's prophet. And it's the death of Isaiah.
And Isaiah, man, he idolized this king. And all of a sudden,
God gives him leprosy in front of all these people. And he has
to live out by himself. He can't live anywhere close
to people. And if you're coming down the
road and he's coming down the road, he has to get off the road
and say, I'm clean, I'm clean. You don't want to get near me. But he wanted that privilege,
that privilege. We're all as an unclean thing,
and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade
as the leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
This brings me now back to this statement in Matthew 5 and verse
20. Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall not enter into the kingdom of God. This righteousness was
self-righteousness in these scribes and Pharisees, and we have looked
at what Paul had to say in Romans chapter 10 in regard to that
subject. Their righteousness was by their
works. Ours, where does it come from? Is it our works? Nope. It's the perfect work and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That means it lasts forever and
ever and ever. And if you once have it, you
can't lose it. Our Lord said, I came not to
destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Any person trying to please God
in human flesh has missed entirely the gospel of Christ. Their righteousness was imperfect,
but our righteousness is in Christ, and it is absolutely perfect. Here's a statement out of 1 Corinthians
1. My beloved Son, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. This is the Father speaking about
Christ. He perfectly obeyed every law. And God has made Christ to be
unto His people wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It looks to me like everything
has to come from Christ, and nothing from ourselves. Their righteousness was their
hope, and Christ is our hope. If He's not your hope, you're
lost. You're lost. I pray God would
grant you mercy. Alright, two more Scriptures
here, and I think I can... Well, I might have overstated
the case. I might need a little bit more
time. Here's a statement out of Hebrews. Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant...
Now listen. Christ's blood is the blood of
the everlasting covenant. That covenant was made before
man was ever made, before the world was ever made. The everlasting covenant make
you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you
that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. Colossians chapter 1, And you
that were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present to present us wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. I'm telling you, if Christ is
our righteousness, it can't go bad. It cannot go bad. We might be miserable failures,
but I'm telling you we're not strong enough to rob Christ of
one of His elect. So here's the root of the whole
matter, otherwise known as a conclusion. The God of the Bible is holy. He can't be God and not be holy. If he changes, he's not God. Every attribute If you've ever
gotten a hold of Pink's book on the attributes of God, that's
a good one to read. Because I'm telling you, this
world in which we live, they have no concept of who God is. And you and I went no telling
how many years before we ever discovered it by the grace of
God. And God did it. Not us. You remember when Isaiah, in
that same chapter we alluded to earlier, chapter 6 of his
prophecy, when Isaiah saw himself, oh my, he just threw in the towel. Without God's mercy, he could
not live. Job in much the same position. People call themselves his friend
and they only went down there to tell him how bad he was and
why God's punishing him, you know, for what he did and all
this kind of stuff. He lost his whole family. He
lost his wealth. And these guys just kept stacking
it on. And finally in chapter 42, Job
says, I hate myself. And that was it. And the beauty of it is that
our Lord instructs him to pray for these people that thought
they were doing his work only to find out they didn't even
know the God of Job. Amazing. Amazing. Oh, you know this, don't
you? I know you do. There ain't but
one true and living God. There's not two. Somebody's God is fake. It could
be mine, it could be yours, and it could be someone else's. We
need to make absolutely certain of this. People who come to God must be
holy. But we can't bring our own holiness. It won't stand the test. God's
in the business of giving holiness, bestowing it upon us. Whoever comes to God must be
absolutely holy. Not almost holy, but perfectly
holy. How good must a man be in order
for God to save him? How righteous must a man be in
order for God to save us? Now here's the answer to that. We don't have what God demands And if we fall on our face and
confess our bankruptcy and beg the God of heaven and earth in
our Lord Jesus Christ, He may just have mercy on you and save
your poor soul without it having to do with anything that you've
done for Him. Not all we did for Christ, in my case anyway, told people
lies. I didn't know they were lies.
But that doesn't excuse it. This book, I've had one as long
as I can remember. But, away it goes.